Panoro Energy expects production to begin soon at Aje field, offshore Lagos.
The final hook up procedures is in progress with a view to wells being brought into production shortly, Panoro said in an update today.
The field, discovered in 1997, is located on the OML 113 license offshore Nigeria.
Panoro Energy has a 6.502% interest in the licence which is operated by Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum (YFP) and is located in the extreme western part of offshore Nigeria adjacent to the Benin border.
Five wells were drilled on the Aje Field. Aje-1 and Aje-2 tested oil and gas condensate at high rates from the Turonian and Cenomanian reservoirs, and Aje-4 confirmed the productivity of these reservoirs and discovered an additional deeper Albian age reservoir.
Aje-5 was drilled in 2015 as a development well for the Cenomanian oil reservoir.
The OML 113 license has full 3D seismic coverage from surveys acquired in 1997 and 2014.
In March 2014 the Government of Nigeria approved of the Aje Field Development Plan (“FDP”) and in October 2014 the Final Investment Decision (“FID”) for the project was made.
The FDP describes a development of the Aje Cenomanian oil reservoir via two subsea wells, the new Aje-5 well and a re-completed Aje-4 well, and a leased FPSO.
The initial 2 wells will produce an estimated mid case of 28.5MMbbls 41° API oil with production starting early 2016 at a rate of circa 1,100 bbls/day (net to Panoro).
Two further wells, Aje-6 and Aje-7, are expected to bring total Cenomanian oil production up to over 50 MMbbls.
A third Turonian gas condensate development phase is being conceptualised and will likely involve 3 or 4 wells producing over 500 bcf of gas, 22 MMbbls of condensate and 40 MMbbls of LPG.
The drilling and completion program for the Aje Field Cenomanian oil development was carried out with Saipem’s Scarabeo 3 drilling rig.
After completing the well operations on the field, Panoro said in November 2015 that plans for commercial production from the field were set towards the end of January 2016.
The final works on the Front Puffin floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the Aje field were completed and the vessel left Singapore in February heading to Nigeria.
The FPSO was expected to arrive in Nigeria mid-March 2016, following a brief stop in Cape Town, and the production was expected to start by the end of March 2016.
Panoro said in February that after the arrival the FPSO would be hooked-up to the mooring system and risers and a short test of the production systems would be conducted.
According to Marine Traffic, the FPSO Front Puffin is currently located offshore Nigeria.
